Perhaps this is what
Fugazi Unplugged could have sounded like. But that's not to detract the
music of The Evens. Unless you are a follower of the US straight edge
scene, Fugazi is probably the most you can associate with Ian MacKaye.

Since Washington's
Fugazi went on hiatus, MacKaye soon picked up the slack and formed The
Evens with partner and former Warmers Amy Farina in 2001. Since then,
the have two releases - the self-titled The Evens (2005) and Get Evens
(2006).

With MacKaye on baritone
guitar and Farina on drums, The Evens aren't making the type of music
you can mosh to or even try stage-diving to. But because of the acoustic
set up, the songs tend to come across with a certain pop feel. With forceful
tracks such as Dinner With The President, You Won't Feel A Thing, Cut
From The Cloth and Mt Pleasant Isn't - power pop then?

Still, MacKaye always
had strong feelings. Here are some anti-Bush lyrics: "Cynics are excused
from standing up to the problems/Because they can't get up from their
own seats." And "You fabricated your way in here/And everybody
knows/Everybody knows you are a liar." And in this Brisbane show,
MacKaye even manages to inject some humour by getting the crowd to sing
along on his anti-Bush diatribe, You Won't Feel A Thing.

The Washington Post
wrote: "It would be tempting, then, to describe The Evens as music for
Fugazi fans who've grown too old and weary to still consider themselves
punks... It's rock, but with the reins held tight... If such a style exists,
the Evens sound like what happens when post-hardcore becomes post-post-hardcore."

But for MacKaye,
that's probably just semantics. As he tells PBS FM in Australia: "Luckily
we don't have to depend solely on words to convey the music. If music
could be summed up in words, we wouldn't have to play it!" MacKaye continues:
"Amy and I write and sing about things that are on our mind." The music
might sound toned down (as compared to the charge of Fugazi) but the passion
is still intact. As they sing on the track, Around The Corner (Get Evens):
"What are you going to do if you get too weary to go on?" The answer:
"You're not going to exit."

Malaysian Joe Kidd
(Carburettor Dung and ricecooker.kerbau.com) had attempted to get MacKaye
and Farina to perform in Kuala Lumpur in March after the duo's Australia/New
Zealand tour but the plan fell through. But now, thanks to audiowhore
who shared the lossless audience recording on the internet, fans can enjoy
The Evens live in Brisbane.

Click
on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (these are high quality,
stereo MP3s - sample rate of 192 kibit/s). As far as we can ascertain,
these tracks have never been officially released.

Note: Do not click on the tracks if you are sensitive to strong language.

These tracks are no longer available for download. Kindly email us at
mybigo@bigozine.com if you want
to download these tracks at a later time.